Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss
Jaime Piatt
BSU EDTech 541
Name: Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss
Born: April 30, 1777 in Brunswick, Duchy of Brunswick (now Germany)
Died: Frebruary 23, 1855 in Gottingen, Hanover (now Germany)
Gauss is known as one of the greatest mathematicians of all times. He is considered the greatest German mathematician and holds the title, “Prince of mathematics.”
Gauss was so famous during his time, even during land dispute and war, his life was to be spared because of his contributions to math and science.
Gauss was born into a poor family and was the only child. He amazed his parents with the complexity of math as early as 3 years of age, finding mistakes in the business finance formulas.
At the age of 7, Gauss started school and surprised his teachers by finding the sum of the sequence of 100 consecutive numbers instantly. This means, he was able to add up all the digits between 1 and 100 and gave the answer to his teacher right after being given the challenge.
With this ability, his teacher introduced him to the Duke of Brunswick, who became Gauss’s beneficiary, paying for Carl to get a formal education.
Carl’s education included Brunswick Collegium Carolinum, Göttingen University, and University of Helmstedt.
At the age of 21 Gauss had made a discovery that had stumped mathematics since the time of the Greeks, creating a 17gon with only a compass and ruler.
Gauss married Johanna Ostoff in 1805. Johanna passed away giving birth to their second child 4 years later. During this same time, Gauss lost his friend and beneficiary, the Duke of Brunswick, his father, and his son whom his wife died birthing.
A year later Carl remarried his first wife’s best friend, Minna. They were married for 21 years and had 3 more children together.
Many of the contributions Gauss made were in the subjects of Number Theory, Astronomy, Non-Euclidean Geometry, Geodesy, Probability Theory of Functions, and Electromagnetism.
Gauss wrote many papers but rarely published them as he prefered to rework, edit, and fix the work he had previously done. Much of the work Gauss is acknowledged for doing was found after Carl died and papers were found. What that noted, Carl still published over 70 papers and 2 major mathematical books.
Motto: Few but ripe
This made perfect sense with how much work Gauss did but did not publish. He would rather edit and rework then publish the papers and work he found.
Quote: “It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment. When I have clarified and exhausted a subject, then I turn away from it, in order to go into darkness again; the never-satisfied man is so strange if he has completed a structure, then it is not in order to dwell in it peacefully,but in order to begin another. I imagine the world conqueror must feel thus, who, after one kingdom is scarcely conquered, stretches out his arms for others.”
Carl Friedrich Gauss died in his sleep after a slow deterioration on his health. His last outing involved the opening of the railway between Hanover and Göttingen. Carl was 78 when he passed away.
Resources:
Carl Friedrich Gauss (German mathematician) -- Britannica Online Encyclopedia. (n.d.).Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved November 9, 2012, from http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/227204/Carl-Friedrich-Gauss
JOC/EFR. (1996). Gauss biography. Retrieved November 8, 2012, from http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Gauss.html
Roeder, P.S., F. (1993). Carl Friedrich Gauss. Retrieved from http://www.surveyhistory.org/carl_friedric.htm
Weisstein, E. W. (n.d.). Gauss, Karl Friedrich (1777-1855) -- from Eric Weisstein’s World of Scientific Biography. Text. Retrieved November 8, 2012, from http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Gauss.html
Picture Links:
http://www.ams.org/home/page (young Gauss)
http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~schmblss/home/Photos/Gauss/index.htm (Minna)
http://www.keplersdiscovery.com/Gauss.html (17gon)
http://www.jimloy.com/geometry/17-gon.htm (17gon w/ circles)
http://www.surveyhistory.org/carl_friedric.htm (heliotropes)
http://sdsu-physics.org/physics180/physics196/Topics/gaussLaw.html (Gauss’s Law)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/apr/11/the-10-best-mathematicians (motto)
http://www.notablebiographies.com/Fi-Gi/Gauss-Karl-Friedrich.html (last picture)